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The second day of the Overwatch Contenders Gauntlet action has come to a close, finalizing the second team to be eliminated and the eight squads that will progress to the finals bracket.
Although today’s matches weren’t as close as yesterday’s, the stage has been set for some great games now that only the best of the best remain. China’s sole representation, LGE Huya, were a tier below every other team at the tournament and they became the second squad to be eliminated after suffering two 3-0 losses to Gen.G and Gladiators Legion.
Another sold-out crowd was present in Seoul today to cheer on their Korean representatives. In fact, across all of the teams from every region, 48 percent of the players competing at the Gauntlet are Korean. And as usual, this region dominated play. Korea’s second seed, Gen.G, went undefeated to get through the group stage as the top team.
The Korean organization, led by their young projectile DPS prodigy Lim “Glister” Gil-seong on Doomfist, dominated against LGE Huya. But they were challenged by North America’s second seed, Envy, in their second match. Glister was the difference maker in this series and was perhaps the only person standing between the NA team taking the first seed out of this group. Korea is the only region left undefeated going into the finals bracket.
NA teams had a mixed bag of results today. Envy were challenging to be the best team of the day, but Gladiators Legion might be the worst squad going into the next round of play. Envy player William “Crimzo” Hernandez had a spectacular day of games. He single-handedly kept his team in contention on the map Dorado by hiding up on the high ground and sleeping the opposition’s Bastion repeatedly. This bought enough time for his team to re-engage multiple times, eventually allowing for a full hold on defense.
Although Envy will be going into the next round with confidence, their NA brethren were far from impressive today. Gladiators Legion can attribute their only win of the day to star DPS player Lee “Water” Min-seong. That win came against the eliminated team from China, while the other two matches were clean 3-0 losses. It’s no secret that the Gladiators suffer from communication issues, so they’ll need to find a solution to that quickly if they want to have any chance in the finals bracket.
Gen.G, Envy, and Gladiators Legion all progress further into the gauntlet while LGE Huya will pack their bags and return to China as the second eliminated team. Gauntlet action continues later today with the finals bracket starting at 10pm CT on the Overwatch Contenders Twitch channel.
